stains of the curtain call
by Hazelmallorn
Summary: The first time they meet, it's at a restaurant, and she's dressed in a red polo with a cute haircut the same color as her black skirt. In the middle was a struggle for power, with her on top. And the last time they meet it's him on top and it's goodbye to the sound of hellhounds in the distance. Bela/Dean, for Ray.


a/n: written for ray(liliths), two days late of her birthday. image credit to ByOctober on deviantART.

slight au, with some inaccurate dialogue in regards to canon, due to my somewhat fuzzy memory.

* * *

:. stains of the curtain call .:

_bela/dean_

* * *

The first time they meet, it's at a restaurant, and she's dressed in a red polo with a cute haircut the same color as her black skirt. Bela Talbot turns around and bats her eyes at Sam Winchester before flouncing away, leaving the brothers to simultaneously stare after her. She feels their eyes on her back, giving her that Winchester look. Bela suppresses a smile and gives out a few greetings to fellow waitresses–it was a temporary job anyway, not like she cared–before she slips out the back entrance, unseen.

The corners of her mouth turn upwards in a smirk as she reaches up and removes her short black wig in one smooth movement, letting her honey-blonde hair tumble down past her shoulders. Bela opens her hand, and resting in the center of a blue dishcloth is the rabbit's foot. Bela gave one last smirk as she closed her fingers on the lucky, or cursed, charm.

Back in the restaurant, Sam Winchester's typically-skillful hands slip off his coffee cup, spilling the contents over his trousers. His pockets are empty.

* * *

"Damn," Bela hisses as she catches the rabbit's foot. Dean Winchester can't help but think the little puff of breath in frustration was cute. Not necessarily cute, but rather darling nonetheless. It is Dean's turn to smirk now, and he suppresses his previous thought with a winning grin that doesn't go to his green eyes.

She helps them now, the sly con-artist. But the Winchester brothers still look at her through narrowed eyes, ever suspicious and untrusting of the caged snake.

"I'm gonna kill her," Dean says to his brother through gritted teeth after they lost the Hand of Glory. "I'm gonna kill her someday." Sam merely raises his eyebrows in reply. "She took it, and pawned it off to a _client._" Dean slams the palm of his hand on his Chevy Impala's steering wheel. "I'm gonna kill her," he repeats.

"Why didn't you leave that bitch behind to die?" Dean raises his voice at Sam, pissed off that his brother had let her go.

"Dean, she doesn't deserve to die that way," Sam counters. "She really doesn't."

Dean grunts, at a loss for words.

Later, they find ten-thousand grand in their motel room.

* * *

Bela leans her hip against the table, letting out an impatient sigh. Her hair is done up in an stylish bun with strands trailing down, wearing an elegant black dress that revealed almost her entire back.

"What's taking you so long?" she calls upstairs, voice tinged with annoyance. "How much time does it–"

Bela is cut short by a slow clomping down the set of staircases and it's as if her tongue is cut from her throat as Dean Winchester appears. Frankly, it looks as if he's been put through some sort of miserable torture that forced him to dress up like a girl and dance around in a tutu while being videotaped. Bela bites her lip, trying not to smile and at the same time preventing her jaw from dropping to the floor. Despite her constant denial, Bela has to admit it this time. Dean was quite handsome.

"Well," Dean grunted unpleasantly. "Let's get it over with."

"You know, when this is over, we should have really angry sex." Bela had no idea what just came out of her mouth, and her heart leaped a little faster. It hadn't been intentional, what she'd said.

She could laugh for the rest of her life over the expression on Dean's face.

* * *

"That _bitch_!" Dean seethes, the rage practically emanating out of his every pore. "I'm gonna kill her."

"Dean, if I had a dime for every time you've said that, I'd be rich enough to buy my way out of your deal."

"She stole the god damn _Colt_!"

Dean Winchester flips through Bela Talbot's–wait–Abby Rye's files, eyebrows furrowed and frowning. A while later, he flips through the same files, more carefully this time, paying closer attention to the death date of Bela's parents. Today's date, exactly ten years ago. His eyebrows arch up, rising higher on his forehead than humanly possible. It wasn't an accident after all.

* * *

"Where's the Colt?" Dean demands, barging in with gun raised.

"It's not here." Bela looks into Dean's steely green eyes, heart dropping. There's no sign of mercy, no sign of pity whatsoever. What she thought she'd seen was gone, replaced by an angry man with a heart of stone. And that was why she chose Dean over Sam, because Dean had given up a long time ago just like she had.

Suddenly Dean is upon her, hand grabbing her thousand-dollar collar roughly and slamming her against the door. His other hand holds his gun, still pointed at her head.

"I said, _where is it?_"

"I'm telling you the truth. Get on a plane if you must, maybe you'll catch it in time."

"Stay where you are," Dean snarls.

Bela watches with almost-shaking fingers as Dean flips her room upside down. Taking the chance while his back is turned, she inches towards the door slightly, to a response of three gunshots aimed right next to her head, blowing a gaping hole in the wood a mere three inches from her brain.

"I said, stay where you are." Bela's breath hitches in her throat, and Dean's expression softens for a split second before returning to that cold, calculating look. Bela's dying embers of remaining hope are extinguished.

Dean turns around after a thorough check of her room, aiming his gun at her forehead.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you," Bela says, controlling her voice.

"Yeah. I am."

* * *

Dean's pulse is steady and his thoughts are calculated as he aims the gun at Bela. His eyes flit around her face one last time, and out of the corner he notices a twist of devil's shoestring, which must have slipped loose when he slammed Bela against the door.

"You're not worth it," he says gruffly, lowering his gun and stalking out.

* * *

Bela slips in with one swift movement, shooting bullets at the lumped beds. Her heeled boots making muffled thumping sounds on the carpet, she tears the bedcovers away only to find air-blown dolls in red bras staring back up and mocking her.

"Looks like you're a little late," says a jeering voice from behind. Bela remains silent, having nothing to say to Dean Winchester. "See, Bela…or should I say…Abby." At that name, that crossed out, ripped to shreds, burnt to ashes and cast into oblivion name, Bela stiffens. "Oh yes," Dean continues. "I did a little further research, and found out that your parents died on this day, exactly ten years ago. It wasn't some suspicious, ghostly car accident, was it? It wasn't an accident at all. You made a deal with a crossroads demon, and now your time's up. That's why you had the devil's shoestring, isn't it? To keep the hellhounds at bay."

"I made a deal, killed my parents, and became rich." Bela's tones are clipped, and she's barely holding back the lump in her throat.

"And," Dean says while glancing at the clock. "You've only got a few minutes left." The geometric numbers read 11:57.

"Please." Bela chokes out a sob, unable to hold it back anymore. "The demon who holds my contract, she also holds yours. In fact, she holds all contracts. Her name is Lilith." Bela bites her lip, resisting the urge to scream.

"And why are you telling me this now? Do you seriously think it'll make up for anything, that I'll forgive you for the snake you've been?"

"No, I don't. But maybe you'll be able to kill that bitch, once and for all." It's a lie. Despite everything she's done, despite how Dean's reacted, Bela still hopes for forgiveness, at least one small act.

"This doesn't do you a lick of good," Dean sneered. It's useless to keep hoping; she should've learned that lesson thirteen years ago. "Now, Abby Rye, what are you going to do during your last few minutes alive?"

"Don't call me that," Bela hissed, her eyes flaring suddenly. "Abby Rye has been dead for the last ten years."

Dean arched his eyebrows but didn't continue. "Now Bela Talbot is going to die too."

Bela closes her eyes, letting tears fall down her exquisite cheeks. This is the end, and Dean Winchester wasn't going to save her, not from the hellhounds and not from herself. This is the last time they'll ever meet, and it's far from the fairy-tale ending Bela had hoped for in their first meeting.

In the distance, Bela hears the sound of hellhounds, hellhounds coming for her, coming to kill her and leave nothing but a mangled body on the ground while her soul is in hell.

"Goodbye, Dean Winchester." Bela's voice is a whisper, the last human thing she hears before the excruciating pain, and then there's nothing more.

* * *

In spite of all efforts to look away, Dean's eyes are riveted as invisible hellhounds tear Bela's body apart, leaving streaks of blood on the floor. Her last words are a ringing echo in his mind. _Goodbye, Dean Winchester. Goodbye, Dean…Goodbye. _

"Goodbye, Bela Talbot," he whispers, kneeling down in front of her mangled body.

This is the last time he'll ever see her, and his lips are stained with her blood when he walks out.


End file.
